Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Preventing Hobby Wobble between Projects

Hello again everyone. Sorry for the delay between posts recently, but you will be happy to know I will be back to my regular posting twice a month!

We all have experienced Hobby Wobble and as Wargamers we have come to almost accept it as part of the process. It sneaks into our hobby time like a Nurgling dancing around distracting us from the Great Unclean One that is our current (or next) project. What are some of the ways to prevent Hobby Wobble? Is it possible to use Hobby Wobble to your advantage? I will explore these ideas (and maybe more) while sharing my current plight as I finish my latest army and attempt to stave off the dreaded Hobby Wobble.

Ignore the large hobby project behind the curtain!

I am currently finishing a large Wood Aelf Army (also my final army to be on Square bases! Woohoo!) and as I grind out my last models my mind keeps asking what should I put on the painting table next? I have no lack of options that is for certain. I have a few more Stormcast bodies to add to my chamber. Perhaps I could begin growing my Sylvaneth Wargrove or even begin my Orruk Warband that has been slowly taking shape on my Airbrush Table. Lets not forget the 40k projects that have been untouched since Age of Sigmar dropped from the Heavens.

Slaughter your Hobby Wobble!

As you can see I am on the verge of; if not dipping my toes into the Hobby Wobble. I decided to find a small goal (a mini project of sorts). This has staved off the Wobbly feeling as I shift my focus entirely to painting my Slaughter Priest that came free from the latest White Dwarf for the competition on TGA.community (Click the link to access the competition being run by Ben Curry of Bad Dice Podcast).

While I plan to spend quality time on this lone model and attempt to paint beyond my standard I know the wobble will come back in force. So what do I do when it returns? It may sound strange, but I will embrace the wobble for a short time although with a bit of guidance to the madness.

So here is the plan. I will gather up all my small projects (be they a single model or unit) and just put them on my hobby table and let my mood dictate which one of the assortment I will paint that day. I will let myself bounce from Space Wolves to Dreadfleet, but I will set a 1 or 2 month time limit (undecided right now). Once that time frame hits I will finish the current unit/model I am on and end the wobble and begin working on my Orruk Warband in earnest. While the other projects might take a back seat they will still be there and hopefully I can use them as a break from the Army project to prevent burnout (another scary hobby predicament) from time to time.

Behold the KanBan!

I will report back in a future post with how this strategy has worked or if I abandon it completely and fell into a larger rabbit hole. Time will tell, but with tools at my finger tips like my KanBan board (pictured above) it will help keep me focused while being unfocused at the same time. Feel free to follow my updates on twitter as well ( @odiamh )